I was thinking last night how much the U.S. cross-country team seems
like the Chicago (baseball) Cubs (for non-North Americans, the Cubs
and their fans almost invariably start talking about next year
somewhere just past midway through the season). It would be a breath of
fresh air to hear a U.S. skier (or team coach) say that I (we) aimed at
coming in 10th or 30th or 45th and failed (or succeeded); or that I
came in only 30 seconds off the podium but that "only" is another whole
level of training/skiing to be reached, which I'm now going to take
such and such steps to achieve. Such an approach would still leave room
for better performances and faster development, while keeping goals
realistic, achievable and attitudes pointed in the right direction.

Gene


"cpella" wrote:

Based on recent results, I think the US team is right where they
should be expected to be. Perhaps the expectations were inflated to
raise interest? I know for our Canadian men's team they set their
expectations more realistically ... to improve on 13th at the last
Olympics and finish ahead of the Americans, which they did. I think it
is a self-defeating game to raise unrealistic expectations. Is it
because it is in the American psyche to only want to support a team
that they think can win? The obsession with medals is a form of
insanity anyhow. Somebody could have the race of their life and come
in 6th, but get ignored in all the noise.
I met a skier from Trondheim at the Keski on Saturday. He told me that
the ski technician for Estonia is a Norwegian who left the team
because of internal politics. Now that is a soap opera. Norway
getting shut out in the 15K classic would be like Canada losing to
Switzerland in hockey... hmmm.

Chris